Circumcising babies could help Africa AIDS fight

LONDON (Reuters) - Circumcising newborn boys to stop them from becoming infected with the AIDS virus in later life is more cost-effective than circumcising adult men, Rwandan health experts said on Tuesday.

A study by Agnes Binagwaho and colleagues at Rwanda's health ministry found that the operation, which has been shown to cut dramatically the virus' transmission from women to men, is quicker, simpler and more cost-effective in newborns.

The findings suggest "Rwanda should be simultaneously scaling up circumcision across a broad range of age groups, with high priority to the very young," Binagwaho wrote in the study in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine journal.

The researchers analyzed the balance between the costs of medical intervention and its overall benefits. They found each newborn male circumcision would cost $15, while each adolescent or adult operation would cost $59.

They also found that circumcising male babies would ultimately save more money than it costs, because the operation would prevent HIV infections that are expensive to treat and lead to AIDS, which kills.

AIDS is caused by the incurable human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which is transmitted mostly through sex.

The disease has killed around 25 million people since it was identified in the early 1980s and an estimated 33 million people around the world are infected, most of them in Africa.

The penis foreskin, which is removed during circumcision, is rich in cells that are easily infected.

"The cost-savings of neonatal male circumcision are compelling and suggest that implementation is economically feasible in developing countries hit hardest by HIV/AIDS," said Seth Kalichman of Connecticut University, who wrote a commentary on the Rwandan study.

He said scaling up male circumcision in southern Africa had "the potential to stem entire HIV epidemics, saving countless lives" and should be made a priority in comprehensive prevention plans in the region.

A study by U.S. and Ugandan researchers last year found that male circumcision helps protect men from the AIDS virus but it does not protect the wives and female partners of infected men.